Capital One is working to fix my biggest annoyance with online banking

Online banking can make life more convenient although it does come with annoyances of its own, including requirements for two-factor authentication and security questions. Capital One has just implemented technology called SwiftID that aims to eliminate these burdensome procedures by working securely through your device.

SwiftID gets enabled on your smartphone through the dedicated Capital One mobile app.

Capital One pushes a security step to your phone directly through the app instead of, say, sending an email or SMS.

It will only prompt you when you’re signing in to a new device — otherwise, it will just let you sign into your account.

Sounds pretty simple! For the time being you’ll use SwiftID primarily for signing into your online Capital One account but the bank has bigger ambitions for it in the future.

“Today, SwiftID can be used when signing in to your online account,” Capital One explains. “With future developments, it will replace security questions for transactions like resetting your PIN, using your card out of the country, and verifying your identity while on a call with customer service.”

Capital One says this is the first product to use authentication technology of this type in the financial industry so this really seems like a significant evolution for online banking.